1. SUNDAY | DECEMBER 18, 2011
New forum connects rural colleges to jobs
SHWETA SHARMA 18th Dec
t's not easy for students facing cut-
throat competition to get a job in times
of recession. And with new colleges
mushrooming all over the country, the ratio
between jobs and eligible students is increasingly
skewed. In an attempt to balance this ratio and
ensure that each student in India has a chance to
build a career, two ex-IIT Mumbai roommates
Harpreet Grover and Vibhore Goyal
conceptualised CoCubes.com in 2007. The
platform leverages mobile and Internet
technologies to bridge the gap between
corporates and campuses, ironing out the hiring
process in tier II and tier III cities in India.
"My uncle, a Training and Placement Officer in a Punjab college requested me to connect him to my HR, so that
he could invite them to his college. Months later, he told me that despite confirmations, companies never
visited — probably due to the low visibility of new colleges. Later, when I was invited to this college for a guest
lecture, I realised that students in tier II/III cities had a lot of potential. If given the right visibility and access to
information, it could be a win-win deal for colleges and the companies. CoCubes was born out of this incident,"
says Grover.
The word CoCubes comes from the first two alphabets of 'Connecting Colleges Companies': Co x Co x Co = Co3.
Their technology puts engineering students online and helps them connect the right dots. "We don't have a bias
towards any of the 2,400-plus engineering colleges in 474 Indian cities. Companies use our reach, knowledge
and technology to engage and hire students from across the country. They can also engage with students 24*7
through customised profiles, wherein they can share articles and videos, run polls and contests or share recent
updates.," explains Goyal.
After an Rs 1,500 per-student subscription fee, CoCubes.com gets colleges online by giving every student and
Training and Placement Officer a login and password. Every student has to be brought online on CoCubes.com
to ensure they get equal opportunities; the student data is shared. Through this technology, the college manages
its placements internally and gets opportunities in campus drives conducted by partner companies as well as
other employability enhancement initiatives.
"After registering with the website, a company can set eligibility criteria for the job and send to select campuses
and students. The job post is first forwarded to the college Placement Officer; once approved, eligible students
receive a notification. Notifications to students and placement officers are sent through SMS on their mobiles,
which are integrated into the platform. Companies can save time by scheduling online assessments for qualified
students during the campus drive. After the test, companies can shortlist candidates, schedule interviews and
release offer letters online, all the while giving a standard experience to the student," concludes Grover.
(This article was published on the print edition of The Sunday Guardian edition dated December 18, 2011). Full Article available on http://goo.gl/isvTt)